Youjeong Oh - Pop City: Korean Popular Culture and the Selling of Place

I would like to thank my teachers at the University of California, Berkeley. The Berkeley Geography Department is where my dramatic transition from an engineer to a social scientist began. Professor You-tien Hsing has been a scholar and a teacher I admire, having shaped my ideas about urban geography. Richard Walker provided lasting intellectual stimulus for my work. I also thank Paul Gorth, Michael Watts, and Kurt Cuffey for their teaching and kind advice. Although this book does not discuss much about gender, I received intellectual inspiration and professional guidance from Barrie Thorne. I was fortunate to have great teachers throughout the campus, including Margaret Crawford, Marco Cenzatti, Hong Yung Lee, and Clare You.

At the University of Texas at Austin, I have been very fortunate to benefit from the most encouraging groups of scholars. My greatest thanks go to Robert Oppenheim for his professional leadership and generous support. I would also like to thank Heather Hindman, Martha Selby, Kirsten Cather, Mark Metzler, Huaiyin Li, Sharmila Rudrappa, Chien-hsin Tsai, Kyung Park, Sang-Hoon Park, Eunjoo Kim, Boyoung Kim, Grace MyHyun Kim, Yvonne Chang, Oliver Freiberger, Donald Davis, Chiu-Mi Lai, Nancy Stalker, Patricia Maclachlan, Jeanette Chen, Joel Brereton, Rupert Snell, and Yi-Chun Lin.

I have received both intellectual and emotional support from amazing scholars who have worked together to discuss developmentalism and urban Korea. My special thanks go to Professor Jesook Song, who has stimulated me to grow into an independent scholar. I have learned a lot from intellectual dialogues with Laam Hae, Hyun Bang Shin, Bae-Gyoon Park, Mun Young Cho, Hyeseon Jeong, Seo Young Park, and Sujin Eom. Thanks so much for each of them.

I am greatly indebted to professional and moral support from the Korean studies community. My sincere thanks go to Namhee Lee, Dal Yong Jin, Hae Yeon Choo, Yoonkyung Lee, Eleana Kim, Jaeeun Kim, Ju Hui Judy Han, Nan Kim, Suzy Kim, Seungsook Moon, Kyung Hyun Kim, Jiyeon Kang, Young-Gyung Paik, Laura Nelson, Suk-Young Kim, and Sangjoon Lee. I have enjoyed talking with my longtime friends, all of whom are amazing scholars as well, including Sunghoon Oh, Yumin Joo, Jee-Eun Regina Song, Yuri Jang, Sung-Heui Bae, Ari Kang, HyungKyoo Kim, and Seungnam Kim. The intellectual and personal communications with my students at UT Austin also helped me a lot: thanks to Chuyun Oh, Jean Young Kim, Zachary Adamz, Jennifer Kang, and Jinsook Kim.

I am very grateful to Gabriella Lukcs and Hyun Bang Shin for reading the manuscript draft and providing helpful comments. I had the privilege of participating in the Social Sciences Research Council (SSRC) Korean Studies Workshop for Junior Faculty. I am thankful to those who read an earlier version of my book prospectus and offered comments to me: Theodore Jun Yoo, John Lie, Jinsoo An, John (Sung Bae) Cho, Olga Fedorenko, Maya Stiller, and Masato Hasegawa. Portions of chapter 5 were previously printed in Oh 2017, used by permission.

I sincerely appreciate the work of the good people at Cornell University Press. Thanks especially to my acquisitions editor, Jim Lance, for his support and professional guidance. The field research for this book was conducted with generous support from POSCO Endowment, an AAS (Association for Asian Studies) NEAC (Northeast Asia Council) Travel Grant, a College Research Fellowship at UT Austin, a UC Pacific Rim Research Program Advanced Graduate Research Fellowship, and a Koret Foundation Fellowship. I also thank Kwanjeong Educational Foundation.

This book would not have come to fruition without my familys support. My mothers everyday prayer and my mother-in-laws dedication keep me going. My biggest thanks go to my husband, Jihoon Kim, who has always been with me. My dearest thanks go to my son, Joshua Hyun-Jin Kim, who patiently allowed me to spend time to travel and write this book. I love you, Hyun-Jin and Jihoon.